World of Wong Kar Wai

[hearthesilence]

If it's any consolation, if they all got 4K restorations, I'm sure a UHD of each title will happen somewhere. The old HD BD's will probably come crashing down in value so if there are any stinkers, it'll still be economical to re-buy.

[dwk]

I'm not sure how much of a chance of any potential UHD being English friendly, as Janus/Criterion has the US, Can, UK, Australian and New Zealand rights to these.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

We've heard rumblings of a UHD release in Korea, where pretty much everything (including the previous WKW Blus) has English subs.

[cowboydan]

Nova Media from Korea specifically stated in June 2020 that they will be releasing a UHD boxset of Wong's films. Unfortunately, the facebook and instagram posts of the news have since been deleted. Hopefully just to not keep people waiting in anticipation of a quick release. I don't think that they would cancel their plans on this release. Also, a quick search on blu-ray.com shows that 272 of their 279 releases include English subtitles.

[dwk]

That doesn't mean that Criterion couldn't ask Jet Tone to force Nova Media to exclude English subtitles. I know if I spent the money to help remaster a bunch of films and licensed all the English language territories, I would ask for the non-English market licensees to be forbidden to include English subtitles.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

It's possible, but there just seems to be something about the way the Korean market works where that almost never happens. The Weinstein Company had rights to The Grandmaster in all the same territories and the Korean Blu of that still had English subs, which is telling given the Weinsteins' longstanding adversarial stance on parallel imports.

[Rupert Pupkin]

will 2046 be a part of the upcoming box set ? the Korean (?) blu-ray of 2046 is barely better than the French DVD of 2046. I wonder if an alternate cut with some kind of time-tunnel or a "Zone" like in Tarkovsky's "Stalker". There are some excerpts (outtakes which looks damned good) on the French DVD; including trailers.
I wonder if some fans did an edit-cut alternate cut using these scenes

I'm happy with "Fallen Angels" Kino as well Criterion's first blu-ray release of "In The Mood For Love" (I'm a bit afraid that the new restoration will somehow change the color grading)
I also have Artificiel Eye "Ashes Of Times" redux... In fact, I have everything which was released on blu-ray.
I know "The Hand" is supposed to be released ? (will this be a part of the new box set?) in an extended cut; in the meantime there's this WEB 1080 release with ingrained subtitles.

Is there a country (Korea, Japan) where the X4 Wong Kar Wai box set could "surfaced" before the Criterion box set (which becomes l'Arlésienne) ? I'm highly interested by 2046 restored on blu-ray.

[tenia]

Just saw the new restoration of ITMFL. Except for a few shots (either fades or slowmo shots) that look a tad "old" (like an old HD master), it's very good looking and I'm glad to report that it doesn't have a visible color signature from Ritrovata. I have 1 nitpick though : it felt soft at times, which seems a willing aesthetic choice, but grain also looked soft at times too and I wouldn't be surprised it has been slightly filtered. 4k OCN restos from Ritrovata usually have a more spiky grain pattern. It's quite slight though and it might be down to the fact that I was at a theatrical screening vs how it would look on a smaller HT screen. I doubt it'll bother many.

I've only seen the movie once long ago so can't state if the grading is very different from the previous one or if there has been any tinkering from Wong with the movie itself. AR was 1.66. The DCP ended with a tech text (that I thought only too late to take a picture of) that states it's a 4k restoration made by Criterion and One Cool (IIRC) at L'immagine Ritrovata from the OCN, supervised by Wong, so no suprise here compared to what is already public.

In any case, this one is pretty good.

[hadyn]

Not sure if this was previously confirmed but the Lincoln Center retrospective includes 2046:

https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/world-of ... al-cinema/

Opens December 18
2046 – New Restoration!
2004, Hong Kong, 129m
Cantonese, Japanese, and Mandarin with English subtitles

In Wong’s future-set 2046 (a loose continuation of Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love), the titular number is many things at once—the year when mainland China assumes absolute control of Hong Kong; the number of the hotel room across from that of Mr. Chow (Tony Leung), inhabited by a parade of women he pursues and abandons; and the name of the mysterious place where disappointed lovers escape to in Chow’s erotic science-fiction novel. Wong’s concentration and control—of the Cinemascope frame, light, color, and the most minute gestures—are at their most accomplished in a work enamored of the limitless expanse of memory and imagination, where reality and fiction dissolve into regret and yearning. Leung’s reprisal of the affable, self-mocking Chow, this time with a bitter edge, is extraordinary. Faye Wong, Carina Lau, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung, and an electrifying Ziyi Zhang are the women in his life, indelible as ghosts from a forgotten past. The 4K digital restoration was undertaken from the original 35mm elements by Sony Pictures Classics, in collaboration with Jet Tone Films, L’Immagine Ritrovata, One Cool, and Robert Mackenzie Sound. The restoration was approved by Wong Kar Wai. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

[Calvin]

Nova Media from Korea specifically stated in June 2020 that they will be releasing a UHD boxset of Wong's films. Unfortunately, the facebook and instagram posts of the news have since been deleted. Hopefully just to not keep people waiting in anticipation of a quick release. I don't think that they would cancel their plans on this release. Also, a quick search on blu-ray.com shows that 272 of their 279 releases include English subtitles.

Interestingly, while they're usually open to talking about future releases, Novamedia have said to me that they're "embargoed" from revealing any further information which makes me wonder if there's some international collaboration involved.

[yoloswegmaster]

I wonder if the 2 Jeffrey Lau films that WKW produced ('The Eagle Shooting Heroes and Chinese Odyssey 2002) are going to appear on the boxset. Both films are on the Channel with the CC and Janus logos.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I think Criterion/Janus has almost the entire Jet Tone catalog. Cheng Hsiao-tse's Miao Miao is also on the Channel and Eric Kot's First Love: The Litter on the Breeze was available in the Filmstruck days. First Love and The Eagle Shooting Heroes have close enough links to actual WKW films that it would kind of make sense to include them as extras, but I don't see it happening.

[yoloswegmaster]

If Ashes of Time was included in the set, then it would make a lot of sense to include The Eagle Shooting Heroes as an extra (I believe that it's been said that this was made in order to recuperate the costs of Ashes). I haven't seen it in a while but I think the version that's on the Criterion Channel (alongside Chinese Odyssey 2002) looks to have been restored.

[goblinfootballs]

World of Wong Kar-Wai Trailer

[cowboydan]

I also posted this on the blu-ray.com forums:

Ok so Fallen Angels (based on the new Janus trailer) seems to achieve it's 2:35 AR from a 1.85 (or 1.78) AR by cropping in some shots, but stretching in other shots. Aside from the examples below, there's more examples of both methods of achieving the 2.35 ratio that can be found in the trailer.

This one is cropped (not exact same frame)

Original


New Trailer


This one is stretched

Original (DVD I think, not BD)


New Trailer

[hearthesilence]

Ugh, my enthusiasm for this box set is dying.

[therewillbeblus]

Those are egregious.

[feihong]

Is Wong really so embarrassed by his 90s films that he needs to sabotage them in this way? All the miserable recutting and recoloring and rerecording of Ashes of Time to make it look "classier," and now this stretchy garbage? It's almost like his solution in both cases is to make it visually distorted that nobody wants to watch it.

Looks like no footage of 2046, Ashes of Time, My Blueberry Nights or The Grandmaster. Those were all longshots anyway, right? I think they're all owned by other companies.

I'm very conflicted. All the old WKW blu rays are not top–quality, upon rewatch––so As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild especially will end up looking much, much better, and the clips from In the Mood for Love look really good so far. And a hi-def version of The Hand would be great...but I really don't want to support this miserable approach to Fallen Angels. It's such a grim disappointment. This is pretty much how the film will look going forward, right? I hate it.

[cowboydan]

Is there any precedent of Criterion including a film in 2 different versions/aspect ratios on a single release? Like how Abkco / Arrow did with El Topo in the Jodorowsky boxset?

[cowboydan]

I'm very conflicted. All the old WKW blu rays are not top–quality, upon rewatch––so As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild especially will end up looking much, much better, and the clips from In the Mood for Love look really good so far. And a hi-def version of The Hand would be great...but I really don't want to support this miserable approach to Fallen Angels. It's such a grim disappointment. This is pretty much how the film will look going forward, right? I hate it.

The new As Tears Go By footage looks incredible compared to the old BD which is either an upscale or has excessive DNR. The old Days of Being Wild was actually really good looking already but the subtitles were terrible, so I'm sure the release will improve on that as well as the 4k resolution bump. The Hand (Eros) is available in good looking HD on iTunes in the US. But it's not the extended cut like the upcoming release.

It really is a shame about Fallen Angels . I recommend anyone who can watch Region B discs to pick up the Artificial Eye release. I think it goes for 8 GBP on amazon. I'm lucky to have picked up the Korean EOS release years back which has the same transfer as Artificial Eye and Kino, I think.

[swo17]

Is there any precedent of Criterion including a film in 2 different versions/aspect ratios on a single release? Like how Abkco / Arrow did with El Topo in the Jodorowsky boxset?

On the Waterfront

[dwk]

Looks like no footage of 2046, Ashes of Time, My Blueberry Nights or The Grandmaster. Those were all longshots anyway, right? I think they're all owned by other companies.

2046 has been restored too, but it is still with Sony in the US. The other three haven't.

Opens December 18
2046 – New Restoration!
2004, Hong Kong, 129m
Cantonese, Japanese, and Mandarin with English subtitles

In Wong’s future-set 2046 (a loose continuation of Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love), the titular number is many things at once—the year when mainland China assumes absolute control of Hong Kong; the number of the hotel room across from that of Mr. Chow (Tony Leung), inhabited by a parade of women he pursues and abandons; and the name of the mysterious place where disappointed lovers escape to in Chow’s erotic science-fiction novel. Wong’s concentration and control—of the Cinemascope frame, light, color, and the most minute gestures—are at their most accomplished in a work enamored of the limitless expanse of memory and imagination, where reality and fiction dissolve into regret and yearning. Leung’s reprisal of the affable, self-mocking Chow, this time with a bitter edge, is extraordinary. Faye Wong, Carina Lau, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung, and an electrifying Ziyi Zhang are the women in his life, indelible as ghosts from a forgotten past. The 4K digital restoration was undertaken from the original 35mm elements by Sony Pictures Classics, in collaboration with Jet Tone Films, L’Immagine Ritrovata, One Cool, and Robert Mackenzie Sound. The restoration was approved by Wong Kar Wai. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

[feihong]

But 2046 remains with Sony Pictures Classics. So we won't be seeing that in the set, I think.

I doubt we'll see two versions of Fallen Angels in the Criterion set. Most likely, this look is what Wong did with the restoration. As with Ashes of Time, there's probably no fixing it now.

I grabbed that Artificial Eye release. I watched the Kino the other day, and it looked very soft and drab.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I grabbed that Artificial Eye release. I watched the Kino the other day, and it looked very soft and drab.

Both versions almost certainly use the same Block 2-supplied master and the DVDBeaver caps don't show any discernible differences. In fact they might even be the same encode—I think DVD Beaver's bitrates include both the video and audio tracks and the slightly higher bitrate on the AE is about what you would get if you add the PCM track that isn't on the Kino.

[therewillbeblus]

I really don't want to support this miserable approach to Fallen Angels. It's such a grim disappointment. This is pretty much how the film will look going forward, right? I hate it.

Considering this is easily my favorite film of his that I don't already own, it's making the buy much harder to justify. The cutting of the top and bottom of that first frame changes everything by eliminating core enveloping material in the mise en scene. It's like he wants to make entirely different movies out of boredom.